By T.J. Buffenbarger
QUINCY, MI (September 14, 2024) — Van Gurley Jr. finished off a track championship season on Saturday night at Butler Motor Speedway by winning the final feature of the 2024 season at the high banked 3/8 mile oval. Gurley, from Valparaiso, Indiana, held off a late challenge from Chase Ridenour to secure his second feature win since coming back to the sport after being idle for 22 years until last season.
Gurley was able to keep his wits about him after Ridenour showed him a nose after a caution with six laps to go. Ridenour ended up sliding by Gurley in turns three and four with Gurley returning the favor in turns one and two. Gurley and Ridenour raced closely through turn two with Ridenour sliding off the banking.
“Obviously you’re worried about the guy behind you, and you try to hit your marks,” said Gurley of leading before the late race caution. “I was slowing up a little bit. I should have probably taken my wing back even further, but just tried not to screw up, mainly, and not let anybody by. Then when I saw (Ridenour) I thought that I better not lose this damn thing.”
Jason Blonde and Gurley started on the front row for the 25-lap feature event. After the initial start was waved off the second attempt caused chaos when Jason Blonde pulled a gigantic wheel stand down the backstretch after taking the lead. While drivers took evasive action to avoid Blonde, who miraculously was able to keep going, but further back in the field saw Jason Ferguson and Jack James get together and end up flipping in turn three. Both drivers exited the cars under their own power.
Gurley took the lead during the third attempt to start the feature as Blonde spun into the infield, driving down in a manner that allowed the remainder of the field to miss him before dropping out of the race without causing a caution flag.
The caution flag appeared again on lap five for Jeremy Luther spinning. Gurley was able to pull away during the restart opened a 1.193 second advantage towards the midway point of the race when Gurley started overtaking slower cars.
Further back in the field Ridenour was racing with Thomas Schinderle for second position. On lap 17 Ridenour made the pass and started pursuit of Gurley, who had just cleared a group of slower cars and had an open track ahead of him.
The completion of the race changed with six laps to go for a spin by Levi Voice. Gurley had an over 2.343 second lead erased by a caution with six laps to go. Ridenour exchanged the lead with Gurley after restart with Ridenour sliding Gurley in turns three and four and Gurley returning the favor in one and two. Gurley and Ridenour raced hard into turn two with Ridenour sliding off the banking to bring out the final caution flag.
From there Gurley was able to drive away from the field, holding a 1.567 second advantage over Schinderle at the finish. Aaron Shaffer, Frank Neill, and Ridenour rounded out the top five.
The victory was particularly sweet for Gurley, who had run second on five different occasions this season at Butler to secure the win and the championship on the same night.
“I have five second place finishes up here, and makes feature win number two,” said Gurley of his season this year at Butler. “I just like winning races championships. It’s nice to get the championship, but if I won 10 times and lost a championship, I’d rather have the 10 wins. But to get the win and the championship on the final night, that was the icing on the cake. That’s why, when Chase showed me his nose under caution and passed me there, I thought, ‘man, there’s no way in hell I better let beat me.’ So, I took it in a little extra deep, and he used up as much racetrack as possible.”
Schinderle was the fastest qualifier over the 17 car field with a lap of 13.386 seconds. Blonde and Gurley won heat race events.
Butler Motor Speedway
Quincy, Michigan
Saturday, September 14, 2024
Qualifying
1. 41-Thomas Schinderle, 13.386[15]
2. 01-Chase Ridenour, 13.587[16]
3. 27-Chris Jones, 13.615[12]
4. 51-Mark Yearling, 13.617[7]
5. 10B-Jason Blonde, 13.709[13]
6. 13-Van Gurley Jr, 13.734[10]
7. 88N-Frank Neill, 13.993[11]
8. 7-Alex Aldrich, 14.096[6]
9. 20A-Andy Chehowski, 14.190[1]
10. 81-Levi Voyce, 14.234[2]
11. 22-Aaron Shaffer, 14.527[3]
12. 22J-Jeremy Luther, 14.660[5]
13. 33F-Jason Ferguson, 14.675[4]
14. 16B-Ty Williams, 14.902[9]
15. 99-Jack James, 14.999[14]
16. 3A-Mike Astrauskas, 18.660[8]
17. 27S-Patrick Stack, 18.660[17]
Heat Race #1 (8 Laps)
1. 10B-Jason Blonde[2]
2. 41-Thomas Schinderle[4]
3. 88N-Frank Neill[1]
4. 27-Chris Jones[3]
5. 22-Aaron Shaffer[6]
6. 20A-Andy Chehowski[5]
7. 33F-Jason Ferguson[7]
8. 16B-Ty Williams[8]
DNS: 27S-Patrick Stack
Heat Race #2 (8 Laps)
1. 13-Van Gurley Jr[2]
2. 7-Alex Aldrich[1]
3. 01-Chase Ridenour[4]
4. 51-Mark Yearling[3]
5. 3A-Mike Astrauskas[7]
6. 22J-Jeremy Luther[6]
7. 99-Jack James[8]
8. 81-Levi Voyce[5]
A-Main (25 Laps)
1. 13-Van Gurley Jr[2]
2. 41-Thomas Schinderle[3]
3. 27-Chris Jones[7]
4. 22-Aaron Shaffer[9]
5. 88N-Frank Neill[5]
6. 01-Chase Ridenour[6]
7. 20A-Andy Chehowski[11]
8. 3A-Mike Astrauskas[10]
9. 16B-Ty Williams[15]
10. 22J-Jeremy Luther[12]
11. 81-Levi Voyce[16]
12. 51-Mark Yearling[8]
13. 7-Alex Aldrich[4]
14. 10B-Jason Blonde[1]
15. 99-Jack James[14]
16. 33F-Jason Ferguson[13]
DNS: 27S-Patrick Stack